The invention relates to an apparatus comprising a housing having a housing wall formed with a passage closed by a cover connected to the housing wall, which cover is elastically deformable and has a portion which is raised with respect to the adjacent area of the housing wall in a rest position of the cover and owing to its elastic deformability, the raised portion of the cover is movable transversely to the housing wall in a direction toward the apparatus interior from a rest position into an operating position, and which has an actuating means which, when the raised portion is moved from its rest position into its operating position, is movable from an inactive position into an active position, and comprising switching means which are accommodated in the apparatus and by means of which, when the actuating means is moved from its inactive position into its active position, a switching function can be activated with the aid of the actuating means.
Such an apparatus of the type defined in the opening paragraph is known, for example from the document EP 0 011 320 A2. In the known apparatus a housing wall has a plurality of passages in the form of small holes and the cover is located in the interior of the apparatus, the cover having protrusions which extend through the passages in the housing wall, the free ends of the protrusions thus forming the raised portions of the cover. When in the known apparatus the raised portions of the cover, i.e. the free ends of the protrusions are brought into a position in which they are flush with the adjacent area of the housing wall, this activates a switching function of the switching means inside the apparatus, as a result of which the apparatus is, for example, switched on. The construction and the operation of this known apparatus have the drawback that, for example, by simply placing the apparatus onto a surface, the free ends of the protrusions of the cover can assume a position in which they are flush with the adjacent area of the housing wall, which may result in an inadvertent actuation of a switching function of the switching means, which is obviously undesirable. Such an inadvertent actuation of a switching function of the switching means of the apparatus may lead to, for example, an unwanted loading of the batteries used in such an apparatus, which results in undesired draining of these batteries.